Breakfast at Tiffany's
Book vs. Movie
Breakfast at Tiffany's is a book written by Truman Capote that was made into a movie featuring this lovely lady.
If you haven't seen it, it may be official that you're not an actual human being because it is iconic. Everyone has seen the classic representation of Audrey Hepburn as Holly Golightly... and everyone has seen renditions of it EVERYWHERE.
No. Seriously.
While it is such an iconic piece of film, the book never gets enough attention. If you haven't seen the movie, go watch it. It's my favorite movie and it took me a good three times before I got it and understood what it was that made me keep coming back.
Essentially, the movie is about a girl who doesn't have her life together but the focus isn't what you expect. The true aspects of the movie are always hidden, mentioned, and then glossed over like they do not matter. But they do. The things we glance over create who we are. Especially for Holly Golightly.
In the book, this glancing over of the issues is even more apparent as it is told completely in reflections. Paul tells a story about a girl he once knew... Holly Golightly. And in it understanding of her is never actually established.
Even her name tells us tons about her character. Holly Golightly, she lives her life moment to moment, and doesn't seem to make any long time plans... other than marrying rich, which the one guy who cares about her is not.
Holly Golightly is a very fascinating character because of her light attitude. She is practically always positive - and chooses to forget. She has no stability, and that is what she wants.
Her couch is a bathtub. She keeps her phone in a suit case. She has dreams of a better life, but she is stuck due to her own choices. It never gets better.
The movie does a great job at portraying Holly as she is, flighty and even some what oblivious to her choices and their effect on her life.
The book puts Holly through a more distant lens, still the same character, but more distant, and in many ways more dreamlike. The movie makes her visually more real and even slightly more relatable.
She doesn't want to be controlled. She doesn't want to be caged in. So she continues the cycle, looking for some sort of happiness her self will allow.
The difference between the book and the movie really boils down to the way it is told and Holly's depiction as a character. In the book, Holly is somewhat stronger and the reader does not feel as much for her character when she makes mistakes because she is distant.
Maybe it's just Audrey Hepburn, but the movie really displays her in a more relatable light and you root for her.
This movie is really one of those few times I feel as if something separate was created. The book is great, fantastic even, but it is different. The movie has an entirely different feel to it, and while it does change a few small details, the way the story is told feels more personal.
While I love both the book and the movie, I feel the movie has more to love about it. This is probably the only time I will ever say anything like this, but Breakfast at Tiffany's was recreated with the movie and through the sensational cast something truly magnificent was created.
If you haven't seen it, you need to.
It might just break your heart.
